Teach Four English Skills with LISTEN & LEARN

English students listening to news

EnglishClub's LISTEN & LEARN is a series of audio lessons in fairly easy English that actually covers all four language skills. These popular audio lessons are designed for use both in the classroom and by individual learners. (LISTEN & LEARN follows the same format as Listen to News, which can be used in the same way.) Each lesson typically includes:

  • pre-listening vocabulary
  • audio
  • transcript
  • gap-fill exercise
  • comprehension quiz
  • discussion/essay question
  • answers

Below you'll find ideas on how to use this resource as a whole-language tool in your classroom. Whether you want to fill a one-hour class or a five-minute warm-up, this is a useful teaching tool that will save you time and add variety to your lessons.

If you don't have computers in the classroom, you can print out the page and download the audio. Alternatively, you can send a few students to a computer lab as a time-filler if they have finished a classroom task ahead of others. You can also assign LISTEN & LEARN as a self-study exercise or homework for learners who need extra listening practice. Below you'll see a breakdown of how to test the four major language skills using this resource.

Reading

  • Read pre-listening vocabulary and transcript blanks.
  • Review any challenging vocabulary.
  • Assign further research on the story by having students do an online search on the topic.

Listening

  • Pre-listening: Have students guess what words might fit in the blanks.
  • Listen to the audio three times. (First to get the gist. Second to fill in the gaps. Third to check answers.)

Speaking

  • Put students in pairs and have them practise reading the stories out loud.
  • Encourage students to use expressive voices when reading the stories out.
  • Practise pronunciation with any words students are collectively having difficulty with.
  • Have a class debate or discussion based on the discussion question.
  • After further online research (see reading ideas), have students share other details they learned about the story. Discuss any conflicting reports.

Writing (homework)

  • Have students write an essay or written response based on the discussion question.
  • If your students have a MyEnglishClub page, invite them to post a blog about the LISTEN & LEARN story that they found most interesting.

Follow up

  • Create an end-of-month quiz that tests vocabulary and comprehension from all of the stories you have covered that month.